Tucked away in the eastern elbow of Westchester County, where bus and train lines are nonexistent and the closest highway is a 15-minute drive, lies Pound Ridge, a 23-square-mile town of swanky homes, winding roads and zero traffic lights.
Nestled within the town, within earshot of the Connecticut border just a few hundred yards away, is Scotts Corners and the county”™s other Westchester Avenue.
The cozy hamlet ”” some call it Scotts Corner and others call it Scotts Corners ”” serves as Pound Ridge”™s commercial district and central gathering place for residents of a town where multimillion-dollar homes can often be acres apart from one another. Westchester Avenue begins not far from the town border with Bedford and eventually crosses the state border into Stamford. In between is a quarter-mile stretch of restaurants and shops, some new and some old, that has stood the test of time.
Coming from the west, as the thick brush of quasi-rural Westchester County parts briefly for commercial establishments, the first shop one encounters is Albano Appliance, a family-run mainstay that has occupied 83 Westchester Ave. for 63 years.
In an industry where big-box stores dominate the landscape, Fred Albano has found a way to thrive as the shop”™s third-generation owner. Formerly a commodity appliance store, Albano has earned a reputation for selling high-end appliances, from $300 microwaves surely meant for more than heating SpaghettiOs, to refrigerators that could hold enough food to feed the entire hamlet, all the way down to his prized wood-fire stove that retails for $16,000.
Albano”™s father and grandfather didn”™t want to deliver south of Mount Kisco. To not only survive but to flourish, Albano was forced to carve out a niche for himself. He introduced a line of pricey appliances and began a delivery service that now extends to several states and into Manhattan.
“Pound Ridge has really grown and expanded as its affluence has increased,” said Albano, who has owned the store since 1997. “My business has really grown with the town.”
Joe DiPietro, the co-owner of Chubby”™s Hardware at 68 Westchester Ave, runs the kind of standard hardware store you can find in nearly any small town. At Scotts Corners, DiPietro said he faces no direct competition because of the town”™s secluded location. Named for his father”™s high school nickname ””””™”™cause he was so skinny,” DiPietro says- the store recently celebrated its 35th anniversary in business.
Chubby”™s son gets customers from over the border in Stamford and New Canaan, as well as town residents and those from neighboring Westchester communities ”” on all of whom he hopes to make a lasting impression when they walk into the store.
“We try to get to know the customers and greet them by name when they come in,” DiPietro said.
Pound Ridge Town Supervisor Richard Lyman, known as “Dick” to passersby who greet him on the street, grew up in a home directly behind Chubby”™s. He remembers when Westchester Avenue held a dairy and its only grocery store doubled as a gas station.
Some of the decades-old businesses remain, but they”™re now joined by a pizza joint, a promotions company and a popular gluten-free eatery. Blind Charlie”™s Cafe and North Star restaurant are dining staples, and Scott”™s Corner Market is the town”™s largest employer and only grocery store. There”™s also a cheese shop, a wine store and a bank.
“We”™ve had some businesses come and go,” Lyman said. “The mainstays like restaurants, the hardware store and the grocery store, those are generally always doing well.”
One thing is clear: no chain stores will have a Scotts Corners zip code any time soon.
The town changed its zoning regulations several years ago to ensure that no big-box stores could swoop in and take business from independently-owned stores.
The town was awarded $1.485 million in federal grant money to improve its sidewalks, crosswalks, streetlights, re-orient its parking and make roads more biker-friendly. Lyman said the town will pay $375,000 to cover the costs of a $1.8 million project that he hopes will be completed in 2017.
Municipal parking is free for the luxury SUV”™s that line the street. Though the town boasts a median household income of $183,000, Lyman asked “Who has money to install parking meters?”
There are no bus routes and no commuter rail lines that bisect the town. The closest highway, Interstate 684, is a winding 20-minute drive away. But the 700 people that occupy Scotts Corners ”” the smallest census-recognized area in Westchester County ”” and the additional 5,000 residents of Pound Ridge seem to like it that way.
Daphne Everett, owner of The Kitchen Table, an American breakfast and lunch eatery that opened last year at 71 Westchester Ave., said she hoped her restaurant created a community gathering place that did not previously exist in town.
She should know. She”™s lived in Pound Ridge for 31 years, and admits that it is a very difficult place to reach unless it is one”™s planned destination. “Nobody comes here by mistake,” Everett said.
Perhaps the most unique inhabitant of Westchester Avenue is Antiques & Tools of Business & Kitchen.
On its front lawn sit old radiators, picnic tables and wooden lawn mowers , and inside, nearly every inch is filled with antique playing cards, typewriters, salt shakers and everything in between. The shop”™s clientele include Tom Brokaw, Ralph Lauren, Stefi Graf, Andre Agassi and Martha Stewart. Owner Joan Silbersher asks all customers upon checkout to list the town in which they live- as a way of advertising but also out of curiosity.
Robert Suda, who manned the antiques shop from an old wooden chair, seemed more concerned with the town”™s only cell phone tower, which he feels is an eyesore. Lyman, the town supervisor, agreed, pointing out the tower is not only unsightly but also provides no service to his mobile phone carrier.
The supervisor said he was looking forward to more improvements to the town.
“It”™s due for a face lift,” Lyman said. “There”™s no question about that.”
